1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for assessing network traffic and managing bandwidth allocation of a network.
2. Description of Related Art
Network communication systems are heavily relied on by businesses to transmit large amounts of information and data. The data traffic on such networks can be local traffic (i.e., traffic that originates and terminates within the company""s network) or it can be external traffic (i.e., traffic which originates from outside of the company""s network, such as an externally connected network, and terminates on or travels across the company""s network). Local traffic can include intra-company communications such as e-mail, data transfers, file sharing and the like. External traffic can include customer request for information or services which the company offers, such as database searching, file transfers and the like. The large amount of data traffic on the network causes heavy loads to be placed upon the network resources, such as bandwidth. Accordingly, when the bandwidth required to transmit the data traffic over the network exceeds the bandwidth resources available on the network, the data traffic begins to become backed up which can result in communication delays or loss of data (e.g., traffic dropping due to congestion) over the network.
Currently, techniques for managing network resources for data traffic over a network exist wherein a total bandwidth available over a link, such as an output link, is not exceeded. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,027 issued to Barri discloses a communication switching system that includes a switching network with at least one switching element having a plurality of input links and at least one output link. The system further includes a processing means for calculating the total bandwidth used by virtual paths on the output link from individual bandwidth values contained in path setup cells used for setting up the virtual paths. However, the system only ensures that the total available bandwidth on the output link is not exceeded, and does not provide for differing allocation of network resources between different traffic classes.
The present invention is a scalable and flexible method and apparatus that can classify numerous network applications, such as Internet protocol (IP) network applications, into a finite number of traffic classes based on an assessment of the network. Once the network applications have been classified, the invention can apportion differing amounts of network resources, such as bandwidth, to the network applications of different traffic classes. Accordingly, the different traffic classes can travel across the network at differing levels of quality.
The present invention is a complete and cost-effective approach to provide differentiated quality of service for a network operator""s critical traffic by traffic class priority. The invention does not require any prior knowledge of the network""s traffic characteristic, but instead makes use of: 1) a method of questionnaire and interviewing to obtain necessary information from a network operator to start the traffic classification process; 2) public domain software to provide a cost-effective and non-intrusive traffic flow assessment; 3) an internally-developed traffic classification and bandwidth allocation strategy to make the task of traffic classification into different priority classes scalable; and 4) a set of transformation rules and associated transformation processes that automate the configuration of a bandwidth management tool to provide traffic differentiation, and thereby differing service qualities in a multi-class, multi-priority traffic environment. By doing so, the present invention displaces the need to employ people who must be skilled or have expertise in configuring and using the off-the-shelf technology.
The present invention is desirable since conventional methods suffer from one or more of the following problems. Many of the techniques for distributing network resources are not a complete service offering approach. A complete service offering approach means that the service offering can be started with no prior knowledge of customer network traffic characteristics. That knowledge can be grown over a sufficiently short time-interval (e.g., within 1 or 2 weeks), and be used to perform traffic classifications to provide different priority classes. Additionally, many of the current approaches are not scalable (i.e., not able to address a potentially large number of traffic applications). Current traffic management methods can also be inflexible (i.e., cannot work if the network operator""s input is not available). Finally, current traffic management methods are not cost-effective since they do not make use of currently available public domain, non-intrusive measurement and reporting tools to perform traffic assessments in order to classify traffic and to report traffic characteristics.
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for assessing network traffic loads, separating the network traffic into the traffic classes either with or without specific client priority/business input, and managing the allocation of available network resources based on the class of the traffic. Differentiated traffic classes of communication services, such as time sensitive and non-time sensitive, may be specified via a set of parameters to permit a network to provide corresponding services that result in a guaranteed amount of available network resources, such as bandwidth. The set of parameters allows the network operator to categorize each type of network traffic into traffic classes and designate a predetermined level of network resources per class, thereby achieving the QoSxe2x80x94Quality of Servicexe2x80x94appropriate to the needs of the end users of the network.